Enriched zeolites for vegetable seedling production

Abstract

A series of experiments was conducted in the experimental greenhouse of the Institute of Vegetable Crops in Smederevska Palanka (Serbia) with a goal to determine the biological nutritional value of the studied substrate mixtures and create the appropriate replacement for Zeoplant soil enhancer. In addition to the peat component (commertial Clasmann-Deilmann KTS 1 substrate or Pirotski peat), the substrate mixtures also contained commertial zeolite based soil enhancer as a control treatment (Zeoplant) and natural zeolites provided from the Igroš tuff deposite near Brus enriched in different ways (treatments). Preliminary experiments showed that the optimal ratio of enriched zeolites in the peat based substrate mixtures is about 25% (volumetric). In the final experiment, natural zeolites were enriched with 4 different organic and mineral fertilizers by diverse methods. Enriched zeolites (EZa, EZb, EZc, Ezd) were mixed in optimal ratio with Pirotski peat and compared with Zeoplant based mixture using Lettuce (Lacttuca sativa L.) as the test species. The data concerning plant height, number of leaves and fresh plant mass were collected. The differences between examined tretmans was minimal, without or with small significance for almost the all traits. The only exception was fresh plant mass and the Zeoplant based mixture which exceded all other mixtures. The trials should be continued. To reach the planed goal, in the future, higher doses of mineral and organic fertilizers should be used for natural zeolites enrichement.